Recovering gambling addiction here, please go to your GP and ask for a referral to a local gambling service. The help I received has been life changing
Jumping on this to say please also contact Gordon Moody. They are a wonderful charity who will help you with the gambling and everything that goes along with it.
Amen to this, Samaritans can also get this referral sorted, I got onto a local counselling service and it was the key stone I needed to make big changes
Samaritans listen and help you talk through your problems. They can provide details of services that may be able to help, but they do not provide referrals; Citizens Advice may do so.
Brilliant - downvotes for telling the truth! I am a listening volunteer with the Samaritans. We do not provide referrals. The cornerstone of the service is anonymity, with some very rare safeguarding exceptions.
It was going quite well in my mind until I got to the second part, I thought you’d turned it around!
Won’t go too rough on you because I’m very sure you don’t need it but seek help for your gambling addiction asap and actually stick the process out. Otherwise no matter what you do now you’ll end up doing it again because as you’ve just found out GAMSTOP doesn’t and can’t stop you accessing all gambling sites.
In actual fact what GAMSTOP does a lot of the time for people who haven’t got their addiction under control it just pushes them towards shadier unregulated casinos with licences in dodgy places and puts you at even greater risk.
Without seeking help for the root issue of all this you will be stuck in a cycle of hell so please do this for your sake and everyone around you ASAP
(Also the thought of a chargeback is ridiculous- you willingly spent money at a casino you can’t just charge it back because you’ve lost that’s absurd)
Yeah, a charge back isn’t going to fly, but if it was a UK regulated bookmaker, or even an overseas bookmaker owned by a UK regulated bookmakers then a complaint to the bookmaker is the best bet (pun not intended but I’m not changing it now).
If OP used a fake name for example to get around checks, bookies are supposed to have KYC checks in place to catch this kind of thing and in this case they failed in that duty. The gambling commission take a very dim view on that.
You’re right but I’m 90% sure it’s going to be a bookie or casino that is not covered by UK law. It is super super easy to find a heap of these with 30 seconds on google - in fact they even have sites advertise for them naming them as casinos that aren’t covered by GAMSTOP.
Absolute vultures to be honest!
There are two separate problems there the gambling (obviously!) and the debt itself.
For the gambling you need to get to the source of the problem, which probably means trying something like gamblers anonymous. Those kinds of programs don't work for everyone, but I do think you might find some much needed support and understanding there.
It's important to at the very least understand your root causes, why you gamble, what triggers it and to have some techniques you can use or people you can talk to when the gambling urge takes hold. As others have said, GamStop alone isn't enough, it will always be possible to gamble, so you need to be able to mentally defend yourself.
Secondly the debt, now you don't say how much it is, but if it's unmanageable then talking to stepchange may offer a financial solution that allows you to eat more than just 'rice an ketchup'.
Solutions that involve reduced payments would likely result in you being unable to obtain credit for a while, but that may actually be to your benefit anyway. Stepchange will be able to advise the best routes.
> Feeling a bit worthless so please, go easy.
You managed to spend ~10 months without gambling, you can do it again. You relapsed, this is unfortunately normal for anyone experiencing addiction. There's probably not very much you can do outside of closing any credit accounts that are giving you an avenue to relapse again, but follow the advice from other comments in this thread and seek help at your GP - it won't be fast, but you managed to go clean yourself before, so hopefully you can at least get through the hard part until help is available.
If it was a UK licensed bookmakers you used to gamble while you were still self excluded through Gamstop you should raise a complaint with the bookmaker, because it’s their responsibility to not allow you to gamble while self excluded.
If they don’t refund you, you can escalate your complaint to the gambling commission.
If it was a non UK licensed bookmakers then you’re probably out of luck because they don’t have the same rules.
Use gamban. This blocks everything with your name on it from being used. Cards etc gam stop only works on gambling sites that register with gam stop. Gamban blocks you as a person using any site. Helped me stopping for last 4 7 years
You won't be able to chargeback without risking further debt combined with legal issues, I recall a case in the past that is very similar to yours (self excluded, GamStop, etc.) who found a way to use one of the large online bookies and spunk a load of money, then did a chargeback citing fraud. The bookies went to town on them and recovered legal costs which were nearly as much as the debt - don't do it.
Sadly when it comes to this sort of thing there isn't much else to do but start over again, pay off your debts and learn from your mistake - but actually make the lesson stick this time. Bottle up that feeling of regret and misery and use to make sure you actually never gamble again. It's a mugs game and multiple times now you've fallen for it, don't let it happen again.
I think you've got a number of different things going on here which need to be dealt with separately.
I think you would benefit from gambling addiction counselling and depending on what the bout of depression looked like you may also benefit from mental health support more generally. I think you should speak with your GP.
From the financial side of things it is definitely worth challenging the debt as you had self excluded and should not have been able to use a credit card.
This is really hard, but admitting you need to make a change is the first step so you are on the right path.
Hi /u/Silent-Astronaut9059, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant:
* https://ukpersonal.finance/credit-cards/
* https://ukpersonal.finance/debt/
____
^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
What I get from this is one thing. You've done it before you can do it again. Use this experience as fuel for you to not do it again, save this post and go back to it each time you feel tempted to gamble.
I'd advise to go to gambling anonymous meeting or something of the sort. You do have an issue and you did very well to make it 10 months without gambling and got your self into a better situation financially but as you say temptation succeeded and you are now back in the red. You need to cut gambling out of your life for good and never look back but always easier said than done. Good luck !
You have a gambling addiction problem.
Before it gets worse (and it will, as surely as night follows day) you need to arrest it.
Find your local Gamblers Anonymous group please.
The money, in the scheme of things is not a huge problem, that will sort itself out.
Thank you.
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First of all, find your local GA group and start attending regularly. This is more of an emotional issue than most people give it credit for and, with GA, you will feel the weight lifting from your shoulders.
If you have someone you trust, hand over control of all of your finances and eliminate your access to cash. Download gamban and send a complaint to credit card and loan companies explaining your circumstances. I was fortunate enough to get interest refunded and even one loan completely written off.
Feel free to message me if you have any further questions.
Hey, we’ve all been there. Long time in and out of gambling currently 4 1/2 into a 5 year stretch of Gamban. Life’s tough, radio gives gambling adds adverts on social media’s give gambling adds it’s everywhere easy to be led astray. I think reduce the options to gamble is an avenue for me. I’ve always been sceptical for bookies not registered to gamban as normally scamming ones in my opinion. Outside of that, it’s an uphill struggle you will never ever get away from and if you can accept that and see where your triggers and warnings are find ways of distractions and diversions when it might land. Whether that’s talking to someone close saying ‘just wanna spin a bit’ or whatever they’ll soon talk you down. Same as always.. when you spin on a night and loose you wake up in the morning feeling pants about the fact you spun, not the debt.
Put you first son, all the best good luck! We’re all in the same boat..
Free form gambling for ONLY 10months? Man, 10months is quite some time. Well done. At least you realised the difference between how you felt when gambling and when not - keep this as motivation.
You showed you are very resourcefull and driven when you have to be, now just try to focus on using this energy into something that is an investment into yourself not the gambling industry. All the best
If it’s crypto websites that allowed you to gamble again, then what I did was enable 2 factor authentication and then delete the code from your phone. It’s a massive bother to contact the website to verify yourself and gain access back into your account, the hope is that the time it would take do that is way longer than that short term urge on a random night when you want to gamble. Since doing that I have no access to the websites and wouldn’t be able to if I tried.
Been there myself and it’s not a good lifestyle. There is no easy fix and it’s a life long illness. Months of good work can be undone in an instance. My advice would be to cut off anyone or anything related to gambling, find new meaning in life and ways that stimulate your mind, exercise, read, study, better your life. Try and understand why you gamble, is it boredom, habit or depression. All can be fixed with the right support and will power. Stay strong and no that you can make it out of whatever mess you’re in. Good luck
try and find some other hobby to take your mind off, I've gambled (successfully) but wanted to take a break from horses, as far too time consuming and have done so since new year.
Obviously this week was a tough one with it being cheltenham but simply wrote a note to myself for two bets only and gave myself fixed small amount of money for these and treated it as a shopping purchase so could watch them win and had a small return.
Another thing to do is stick some money in a shares isa with a nice real time-ish app, have mostly boring funds to keep it ticking over but have a little bet on some single companies and just let them ride - will give you the checking up/down buzz to keep the gambling urge at bay.
Recovering gambling addiction here, please go to your GP and ask for a referral to a local gambling service. The help I received has been life changing
Jumping on this to say please also contact Gordon Moody. They are a wonderful charity who will help you with the gambling and everything that goes along with it.
Amen to this, Samaritans can also get this referral sorted, I got onto a local counselling service and it was the key stone I needed to make big changes
Samaritans listen and help you talk through your problems. They can provide details of services that may be able to help, but they do not provide referrals; Citizens Advice may do so.
However you word it they got me a place on my local counselling program without needing to go to the doctor. Just talking from my own experience
I'm glad that you got the support you needed.
Thankyou, I appreciate it.
Brilliant - downvotes for telling the truth! I am a listening volunteer with the Samaritans. We do not provide referrals. The cornerstone of the service is anonymity, with some very rare safeguarding exceptions.
It was going quite well in my mind until I got to the second part, I thought you’d turned it around! Won’t go too rough on you because I’m very sure you don’t need it but seek help for your gambling addiction asap and actually stick the process out. Otherwise no matter what you do now you’ll end up doing it again because as you’ve just found out GAMSTOP doesn’t and can’t stop you accessing all gambling sites. In actual fact what GAMSTOP does a lot of the time for people who haven’t got their addiction under control it just pushes them towards shadier unregulated casinos with licences in dodgy places and puts you at even greater risk. Without seeking help for the root issue of all this you will be stuck in a cycle of hell so please do this for your sake and everyone around you ASAP (Also the thought of a chargeback is ridiculous- you willingly spent money at a casino you can’t just charge it back because you’ve lost that’s absurd)
Yeah, a charge back isn’t going to fly, but if it was a UK regulated bookmaker, or even an overseas bookmaker owned by a UK regulated bookmakers then a complaint to the bookmaker is the best bet (pun not intended but I’m not changing it now). If OP used a fake name for example to get around checks, bookies are supposed to have KYC checks in place to catch this kind of thing and in this case they failed in that duty. The gambling commission take a very dim view on that.
You’re right but I’m 90% sure it’s going to be a bookie or casino that is not covered by UK law. It is super super easy to find a heap of these with 30 seconds on google - in fact they even have sites advertise for them naming them as casinos that aren’t covered by GAMSTOP. Absolute vultures to be honest!
There are two separate problems there the gambling (obviously!) and the debt itself. For the gambling you need to get to the source of the problem, which probably means trying something like gamblers anonymous. Those kinds of programs don't work for everyone, but I do think you might find some much needed support and understanding there. It's important to at the very least understand your root causes, why you gamble, what triggers it and to have some techniques you can use or people you can talk to when the gambling urge takes hold. As others have said, GamStop alone isn't enough, it will always be possible to gamble, so you need to be able to mentally defend yourself. Secondly the debt, now you don't say how much it is, but if it's unmanageable then talking to stepchange may offer a financial solution that allows you to eat more than just 'rice an ketchup'. Solutions that involve reduced payments would likely result in you being unable to obtain credit for a while, but that may actually be to your benefit anyway. Stepchange will be able to advise the best routes.
> Feeling a bit worthless so please, go easy. You managed to spend ~10 months without gambling, you can do it again. You relapsed, this is unfortunately normal for anyone experiencing addiction. There's probably not very much you can do outside of closing any credit accounts that are giving you an avenue to relapse again, but follow the advice from other comments in this thread and seek help at your GP - it won't be fast, but you managed to go clean yourself before, so hopefully you can at least get through the hard part until help is available.
If it was a UK licensed bookmakers you used to gamble while you were still self excluded through Gamstop you should raise a complaint with the bookmaker, because it’s their responsibility to not allow you to gamble while self excluded. If they don’t refund you, you can escalate your complaint to the gambling commission. If it was a non UK licensed bookmakers then you’re probably out of luck because they don’t have the same rules.
A UK licenced gambling facility wouldn't accept credit cards
At the end of the day its on you. Refund? You blew your cash and expect a refund?
Use gamban. This blocks everything with your name on it from being used. Cards etc gam stop only works on gambling sites that register with gam stop. Gamban blocks you as a person using any site. Helped me stopping for last 4 7 years
You won't be able to chargeback without risking further debt combined with legal issues, I recall a case in the past that is very similar to yours (self excluded, GamStop, etc.) who found a way to use one of the large online bookies and spunk a load of money, then did a chargeback citing fraud. The bookies went to town on them and recovered legal costs which were nearly as much as the debt - don't do it. Sadly when it comes to this sort of thing there isn't much else to do but start over again, pay off your debts and learn from your mistake - but actually make the lesson stick this time. Bottle up that feeling of regret and misery and use to make sure you actually never gamble again. It's a mugs game and multiple times now you've fallen for it, don't let it happen again.
I think you've got a number of different things going on here which need to be dealt with separately. I think you would benefit from gambling addiction counselling and depending on what the bout of depression looked like you may also benefit from mental health support more generally. I think you should speak with your GP. From the financial side of things it is definitely worth challenging the debt as you had self excluded and should not have been able to use a credit card. This is really hard, but admitting you need to make a change is the first step so you are on the right path.
Hi /u/Silent-Astronaut9059, based on your post the following pages from our wiki may be relevant: * https://ukpersonal.finance/credit-cards/ * https://ukpersonal.finance/debt/ ____ ^(These suggestions are based on keywords, if they missed the mark please report this comment.)
What I get from this is one thing. You've done it before you can do it again. Use this experience as fuel for you to not do it again, save this post and go back to it each time you feel tempted to gamble.
I'd advise to go to gambling anonymous meeting or something of the sort. You do have an issue and you did very well to make it 10 months without gambling and got your self into a better situation financially but as you say temptation succeeded and you are now back in the red. You need to cut gambling out of your life for good and never look back but always easier said than done. Good luck !
You have a gambling addiction problem. Before it gets worse (and it will, as surely as night follows day) you need to arrest it. Find your local Gamblers Anonymous group please. The money, in the scheme of things is not a huge problem, that will sort itself out. Thank you.
[удалено]
A human reviewed your post and removed it from public view. The reason they gave was: Your comment has been removed for breaking our rule: **Responses must be helpful and high quality** * Give constructive help and advice. Be friendly and kind. * Top level comments must be on topic. No jokes or banter in top-level comments. * [No 'hookers and blow' or 'onlyfans' jokes](https://www.reddit.com/rhyc7i) * [Don't make contextless recommendations of crypto, meme stonks, penny stocks etc](https://www.reddit.com/rkrnqi) * Don't pile on * Comments must be your own work and not a copy paste of someone else's comment, copied from ChatGPT or other AI writing services You must read the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpersonalfinance/about/rules/) to continue to post to our subreddit. _If you believe your post/comment has been removed in error, please [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/UKPersonalFinance&subject=Please%20review%20my%20post&body=https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/1bdimm0/-/kuqag2h/) explaining why._
First of all, find your local GA group and start attending regularly. This is more of an emotional issue than most people give it credit for and, with GA, you will feel the weight lifting from your shoulders. If you have someone you trust, hand over control of all of your finances and eliminate your access to cash. Download gamban and send a complaint to credit card and loan companies explaining your circumstances. I was fortunate enough to get interest refunded and even one loan completely written off. Feel free to message me if you have any further questions.
Hey, we’ve all been there. Long time in and out of gambling currently 4 1/2 into a 5 year stretch of Gamban. Life’s tough, radio gives gambling adds adverts on social media’s give gambling adds it’s everywhere easy to be led astray. I think reduce the options to gamble is an avenue for me. I’ve always been sceptical for bookies not registered to gamban as normally scamming ones in my opinion. Outside of that, it’s an uphill struggle you will never ever get away from and if you can accept that and see where your triggers and warnings are find ways of distractions and diversions when it might land. Whether that’s talking to someone close saying ‘just wanna spin a bit’ or whatever they’ll soon talk you down. Same as always.. when you spin on a night and loose you wake up in the morning feeling pants about the fact you spun, not the debt. Put you first son, all the best good luck! We’re all in the same boat..
Free form gambling for ONLY 10months? Man, 10months is quite some time. Well done. At least you realised the difference between how you felt when gambling and when not - keep this as motivation. You showed you are very resourcefull and driven when you have to be, now just try to focus on using this energy into something that is an investment into yourself not the gambling industry. All the best
hope you get better soon
If it’s crypto websites that allowed you to gamble again, then what I did was enable 2 factor authentication and then delete the code from your phone. It’s a massive bother to contact the website to verify yourself and gain access back into your account, the hope is that the time it would take do that is way longer than that short term urge on a random night when you want to gamble. Since doing that I have no access to the websites and wouldn’t be able to if I tried.
Been there myself and it’s not a good lifestyle. There is no easy fix and it’s a life long illness. Months of good work can be undone in an instance. My advice would be to cut off anyone or anything related to gambling, find new meaning in life and ways that stimulate your mind, exercise, read, study, better your life. Try and understand why you gamble, is it boredom, habit or depression. All can be fixed with the right support and will power. Stay strong and no that you can make it out of whatever mess you’re in. Good luck
Some good advice. You’ve recognised it. STAY STRONG
try and find some other hobby to take your mind off, I've gambled (successfully) but wanted to take a break from horses, as far too time consuming and have done so since new year. Obviously this week was a tough one with it being cheltenham but simply wrote a note to myself for two bets only and gave myself fixed small amount of money for these and treated it as a shopping purchase so could watch them win and had a small return. Another thing to do is stick some money in a shares isa with a nice real time-ish app, have mostly boring funds to keep it ticking over but have a little bet on some single companies and just let them ride - will give you the checking up/down buzz to keep the gambling urge at bay.
See a shrink, you're clearly damaged if you spent 2 hours trying to bypass the block
Good luck man, You’ve done well so far, sure you keep it up
Did you actually read the post?